well aged

I have been unearthing many things with my closet excavation. Some things I had forgotten about, some things that need to go to a new home, some things I had been looking for. Like this good old gem of a quilt:

It was made by my Grandma Irvine for me, I think around the time of my HS graduation (1971). It is all hand-pieced and hand-quilted, and I did really appreciate it and it is very well used. I had it on my dorm bed in Brookings, and it hung on the wall in an apartment in Crystal. It was much brighter then. A few blocks are very tattered.

My Grandma Irvine, (Mormor in Swedish, denoting mother's mother) was a wonderful woman. I don't remember ever seeing her angry or upset. She kept butterscotch oatmeal cookies in a coffee can and she let us eat them for breakfast when we stayed overnight. She read stories to us from the Little Golden books, and I remember the 3 Little Kittens and Tuffy the Tugboat. She had one of those upside-down cloth dolls that you could flip from one doll to the other by reversing the skirt. She collected salt and pepper shakers, and my favorite was the little cup of coffee and pie on a plate, which I got to keep. She always did embroidery, quilting, crochet, etc., and let us learn how to make things with her. You can see another example of her handwork on my sister's blog. And root beer floats were the special treat when staying overnight! Her name was Nora, and the name lives on with my niece, Nora. She was a special grandma, I wish everyone could have a grandma like her, I think the world would be a better place!

On to quilt #2, which I do not know the history of. It is even more faded, looks like it is made of various shirtings with pink fabric in the pinwheels.

It, too, was entirely made by hand. There are even seams in some of the white blocks to put enough fabric together. I guess this must have been made by someone in my family, but we do not know the name nor time period. This should make me more diligent in putting labels on the backs of the quilts I make! I would love to know the story behind this, but even though I don't, it is still a treasure to me.